AN: …So I moved, fell off my new porch, then in the waiting room for the emergency room I realized I hated basically everything about this chapter except the ending, so I immediately started rewrites…you know, once the drugs wore off. Oh and then work got really intense - we had our first active covid case on campus so we started testing twice a week which means my job got harder. We have no active cases now, thank god - then it got too close to the election for me to do anything except refresh the electoral maps and try not to puke. Then ya know, Thanksgiving - I did not get the day off but I got holiday pay so…yay? - Long story short, it was a bad time. (if you know, you know)
Oh, I'm fine btw! I did hurt my knee (I landed on it first so it took most of the impact) but it's been fucked since I was 12 so honestly kneeling on it wrong could put me out of commission for a week (…I want to pretend so badly that that hasn't happened before but alas). The important thing is that I don't have to have a knee replacement! Yet… But anyway, here we are. I hope everyone enjoys!
Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and understanding. I hope to be able to update more frequently soon, my job is changing somewhat - hopefully for the better - and there's a chance that in the near future I'll have two days off a week instead of one which will free up a bit more time for writing and editing. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!
Addendum
(n.)
A thing to be added; an addition.
Chapter Seventeen
The Benders
aka
Better End Your Wicked Ways
Hibbing, Minnesota: May 2018
"You really think Elena has a doppelganger?" Dean asks in undertone.
Sam leans in, it's already hard enough to hear him over the din of the overcrowded roadhouse they're in, so his low tone doesn't help.
Dean is watching Elena from across the room. She's playing pool with a biker who looks like he'd give up his bike forever just for one night with her. Dean's the only one who sees how bored she is right now. She's barely into their game, giving just enough to win, and considering the biker is losing on purpose, it's not much.
Sam nods. "I mean, she told us she had one, Joe Whitetree called her a harbinger and clearly said he'd mistaken her for "the other one", I think we can take all of this at face value. Especially now that we know she pretends she's joking when she's telling the truth."
Sam consults his notebook, crammed with notes, so he's scribbling more details into the margins.
Dean watches as Elena flips her hair over her shoulder, lining up to take the shot, arching her spine more than she needs to, hip cocked, knee bent, perfectly posed. The biker is eating up, his desire blatant on his face. The slightest exhalation from Elena's nose reveals her impatience to Dean. She makes the shot beautifully, winning the game.
"'So far it's just been blood sacrifice and something else'," Dean says out of the blue.
"Excuse me?" Sam asks, looking up from his notebook in confusion.
"About three years ago, Elena called me drunk at a party, she made a joke about how so far her life's purpose had only been blood sacrifice and something else. I can't remember what she said, but I think it's important."
Sam stares at him and then writes it down. "Did you remember anything else she said that might be important?"
Elena is sitting on the edge of the pool table, counting her winnings while the biker looks on hungrily. Even from across the bar, Elena's manticore scar stands out, a slash of white across her otherwise flawlessly tanned legs.
"Uh, yeah," Dean says distractedly. "She called later when she got home. She said a ghost tried to burn her alive in a car, I said her sense of humor was fucked up."
Sam frowns. "Back in Blackwater Ridge, when I asked how many car accidents she'd been in-"
Dean cuts him off. "She asked if a ghost trying to set her car on fire counted, yeah I know." He watches Elena tuck the cash into her back pocket, looking up at the biker with dark, bored eyes that he probably takes as allurement. "It's been right there in front of us this whole time. She's barely trying to hide it and we're still missing it all."
Sam shakes his head. "It's not just you, Dean. When you asked Elena why Joe called her a harbinger, she said everyone has a lookalike, and even though I knew it was something, it took me until I overheard that phone call between her and Michaelson to realize what it was. She's good."
The biker reaches out a hand to touch the edge of Elena's scar, right where it curves before her knee. Dean flinches at the same time she does. Seeing her flinch makes him clench his fist. He stays where he is.
"So, Elena has an evil doppelganger," Sam says, seeing that he's distracted.
He can't figure out why Dean doesn't go over there, like he clearly wants to. The game is over, and Elena clearly has no intention of going anywhere with the biker.
Dean clears his throat. "Didn't she say she wasn't evil, just self-serving?"
Sam nods. "Yeah, that's right."
Dean considers this. "Does Elena have a doppelganger, or is she a doppelganger? I mean, is there a difference? Can you have a doppelganger without being a doppelganger? Did she come first or did the other one?"
Sam's eyes widen at the scope of Dean's thoughts. Clearly this has been on his mind. He writes it down.
Elena finally looks over at them, and Dean is out of his seat almost at once. He's halfway across the bar as she firmly but not unkindly removes the biker's hand from her leg.
When Dean reaches her side, she slides off the edge of the pool table at once to stand next to him. A month ago, Elena would've slid off that pool table and right into Dean's embrace, tucking herself so close to him that Sam probably would've blushed at the intimacy of it. Now, Elena simply angles her body towards Dean, her entire body leaning forward like she's about to crash into him.
Dean for his part, doesn't looks at the biker, keeping his eyes glued to Elena's face. Sam can clearly see him ask Elena if she's ready to go. Elena nods, her eyes on him, like the biker was never even there in the first place.
Sam closes his notebook and pulls out John's to look for a new case.
Outside the McKays' apartment, Elena is waiting for them in the Impala. Her feet propped on the dash, she's eating an apple and reading a book.
Dean reaches a hand in through the open window to shove her feet off the dash.
Elena sits up, flicking her braids out of her face, sending a glare his way.
Sam gets into the backseat as Dean rounds the car to the driver's side. They toss their state police hats onto the free seat next to Sam. He can tell she's still annoyed about being left out of another case because she hasn't made a single flirty quip about Dean in his cop uniform.
"So?" she asks shortly.
Dean shrugs, starting the car. "Don't know yet, we need more information."
He pulls out of the parking lot, headed for the motel to change then the library for information.
She makes a face. "I still don't get why I couldn't come. I've been a cadet ranger, a Homeland Security agent, and a police detective in the last eight months, how would I not be a convincing state cop?"
Dean shakes his head, impatiently explaining his reasoning yet again. "I told you, until we know no one is looking for you after Saginaw, you gotta lay low."
She rolls her eyes, equally impatient. "And I told you, I took care of that. No one is looking for me."
Sam pipes up. "How?"
She looks at him questioningly, so he elaborates. "How did you take care of it?"
"I called a friend, and they took care of it," she says vaguely.
Dean snorts and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sorry, but this whole vague thing is a double-edged sword, Elena. We can't believe your means were effective if you don't tell us what you did."
She leans back into the bench seat with a huff.
"Dad said to keep you safe," Dean reminds her.
She rolls her eyes up to the ceiling. "I think you've officially hit overprotective."
Dean shrugs, unmoved. "You could just tell me what your friend did?"
The silence stretches on long enough to make it crystal clear how willing Elena is to share.
Ignoring the building tension, Sam pipes up.
"What book are you reading, Elena?" he asks.
"It's a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson short stories," she answers begrudgingly.
Sam nods. "I've read Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, but I don't think I've read any of his short stories. Which one are you on now?"
"Olalla," she replies.
"Is that the one with the family curse?" Dean asks.
Sam looks at him in mild surprise.
Elena nods. "Yup, that's the one."
Dean shakes his head in fond exasperation.
"So, I take it you've read it before?" Sam asks, getting the picture.
"Once or twice," Elena says, a smile stealing across her face.
"A month," Dean says under his breath, but he's smiling too.
"So, local police have now ruled out foul play. Apparently, there were signs of a struggle," Sam says.
They're tucked into the furthest corner of the bar, Sam at a table with all his research and Dean and Elena playing darts.
"Well, they could be right, it could just be a kidnapping," Dean says, taking his turn at the dart board. "Maybe this isn't our kind of gig." He frowns as his dart sticks below the bullseye.
Elena takes a dart from him. Her braids are now pinned up, crowning her, dark wisps curling around her face, baring her throat and shoulders, not at all like her usual high ponytails or untamed curls.
"Yeah, maybe not," Sam says reluctantly.
Elena swivels her hips a bit before she throws her dart, sticking above Dean's. She gives him a triumphant smirk. He rolls his eyes but gives her a small round of applause.
On cue, a waitress drops off a free round of shots with Sam.
"Ha," Elena says triumphantly. "Told you it wasn't the hair."
Dean shakes his head. "That hip trick should be illegal," he mutters, heading straight for the shots.
Sam ignores whatever messed up competition they're in the middle of to focus on the case that might not be a case. "Except for this—Dad marked the area, Dean. Possible hunting grounds of a phantom attacker."
Dean frowns, taking a shot and chasing it with a swig of his beer. "Why would he even do that?"
"Well, he found a lot of local folklore about a dark figure that comes out at night. Grabs people, then vanishes," Sam explains. He points at a note in the journal. "He found this too—this county has more missing persons per capita than anywhere else in the state."
Dean frowns. "That is weird."
"Yeah," Sam agrees.
Elena chews on her lip unhappily, not at all accepting of Dean's reasoning for curbing her in this case. She holds out a dart for Dean silently.
He goes over to take it, diligently ignoring her displeasure. If she wants in on the case, she can tell him why no one will remember her in Saginaw, she knows that.
"Don't phantom attackers usually snatch people from their beds?" Dean asks, side-eyeing Elena. "Jenkins was taken from a parking lot."
Elena rolls her eyes but understands exactly where he's going. "There are all kinds of phantom attackers," she recites on rote. "Springheeled Jacks, phantom gassers, shadow people, to name a few."
Dean nods approvingly. "Still my star pupil."
He throws his dart, landing just left of the bullseye this time.
"They take people anywhere, anytime," Sam says. "Look, I don't know if this is our kind of gig either."
"Yeah, you're right, we should ask around more tomorrow," Dean says agreeably, waiting for Elena to take her turn.
"Right, we should get back to the motel," Sam says, his attention singularly focused on their purpose.
Dean gives him a look. "Whoa, whoa, easy. I wanna see if Elena can score us another round."
Elena scoffs. "If? What is this 'if' you speak of Winchester?"
"You're getting too cocky, Gilbert. It's been five whole minutes since someone looked at you like you're the answer to their prayers." Dean waves a dart at her teasingly.
"We should get an early start," Sam says, not at all interested in sticking around.
Dean and Elena share a fondly exasperated look at Sam's wet blanket tendencies. Before either of them can respond to him, someone interrupts them.
"Elena?" He sounds like he's taking a wild shot in the dark that might bite him in the ass at any moment – or on the neck, more likely.
All three of them turn to look at the dark-haired young man standing behind Sam.
"Oh my god," Elena says, bounding forward to throw her arms around him.
He wraps her up in a hug, looking visibly relieved.
"Oh, thank god, I really didn't want to be wrong about it." He lifts her right off the ground, giving her a good squeeze.
Sam gives Dean a questioning look, but Dean just shrugs, looking more than a little weirded out. He has no idea who this guy is.
"Tyler Lockwood, what the hell are you doing here?" Elena asks as she pulls out of his embrace.
Dean relaxes a fraction.
Tyler glances over at Sam and Dean. "Uh, just passing through," he says vaguely. "What are you doing here?"
Elena waves her hand. "The usual."
He nods. "Right."
"Oh," Elena says, spinning around to wave Sam and Dean over.
"Tyler, this is Sam and Dean Winchester," she says. "Sam, Dean, this is Tyler Lockwood, we grew up together."
Sam and Dean both shake Tyler's hand.
"Tyler who dated Caroline?" Dean asks.
Sam suddenly understands why Dean relaxed after hearing his name.
Tyler nodded. "Uh, yeah, in high school. We still keep in touch though." He looks at Elena, mildly reproachful. "Unlike a certain someone in this very bar."
Elena gives him a playfully abashed look.
Dean looks significantly less relaxed now that Tyler is no longer dating one of Elena's oldest friends.
"So, what are you doing in town?" Elena asks Tyler later.
They're seated at the bar, Sam still at his original table in the corner and Dean pretending he's teaching a blonde how to play darts while he surreptitiously checks on Elena and Tyler every minute or so.
Tyler hesitates, but answers honestly. "Uh, there's a pack not too far from here, thought I'd have a word with them."
Elena nods in understanding.
"What kind of pack?" she asks.
Tyler raises an eyebrow.
"We're here on a case, lots of missing persons in this county," she says by way of explanation.
"Oh," Tyler says, understanding dawning. He shakes his head. "Nah, everything I've heard about these guys, they're not interested in drawing that kind of attention to themselves."
"Good," Elena says simply. She cocks her head to the side. "How have you been, Ty?"
He shrugs. "Busy." There is grim purpose in his eyes.
Elena softens with empathy.
"What about you? How's New Orleans? Seen Hayley lately?" Tyler's tone is nonchalant, but his intent is clear.
Elena freezes, realizing abruptly exactly how out of the loop Tyler is.
"Uh, Ty, about Hayley…"
"What do you think they're talking about?" Dean asks Sam, staring at Tyler and Elena intently.
He's given up on his false pretenses with the blonde, she's across the bar complaining to her friends about his hot and cold routine.
Sam wants to laugh, but mostly he just wants to get the fuck out of this bar.
"I dunno, Dean, Virginia?"
Dean tosses him an annoyed look.
"Dean, I don't know anything about Elena's friends, this is your area of expertise."
"All I know about Tyler is that he used to date Caroline, he was best friends with Matt, and his mom's the town mayor, that's it."
Sam narrows his eyes, watching the way Tyler's fist clenches as Elena tells him something.
"He seems upset," he says. "Like Elena just gave him bad news."
"Yeah," Dean replies. "But what? She doesn't talk to Caroline anymore."
Sam shrugs. "Maybe she's telling him she's too in love with you to run away with him."
Dean gives him a disgusted look.
Sam shrugs and takes a drink in order to hide his laugh. Sure, he's curious about Elena's friend, but he doesn't feel burning need to know their topic of conversation, not like Dean.
"Did you notice how he said he didn't want to be wrong about it being her?" Sam asks him out of the blue.
Dean nods grimly. "Yeah, he's definitely met the doppelganger."
"I don't think he likes her," Sam says. He flips through his own notebook to add a note about Tyler Lockwood to his Elena notes.
Dean snorts. "I don't think I'd like her either, if I met her."
There's a lull in their conversation after Elena answers Tyler's questions about Hayley. She can see he's furious, but even more determined than before to continue his mission to destroy Klaus. Elena prefers not to get stuck in the middle of those plots now. Mostly, she just worries about Hope.
"Ty?" Elena starts hesitantly. "I need to ask you something."
He returns his attention to her. "Anything, Elena."
"Could you find out if someone is following me?" she asks, drawing the words out slowly.
He looks alarmed.
"I don't think it's Alaric," she says, hastening to assure him. "I think…"
She glances over at Sam and Dean's table. They're blatantly watching them.
She leans in closer to Tyler, despite knowing he could hear her perfectly even if she was across the bar.
"There's this hybrid," Elena says. "I met him last time I was in New Orleans…" she pauses, still uncomfortable with it all. "He looks eerily like Dean."
Tyler glances over at said hunter. "Seriously?"
She nods. "Klaus swears he's the one who asked to be turned, but who really knows."
Tyler snorts and nods grimly.
"Ever since I left, I keep thinking I see him," she says. "First in a bar in Missouri, then in someone's backyard in Michigan. Maybe I'm just imagining it, he does look like Dean after all, but I just can't shake the feeling."
Tyler nods. "If he is following you, I'll find him. Find out if Klaus sent him or if he just caught Petrova fever."
"Seriously, Dean, can we go?" Sam is bordering on whining at this point and he doesn't even care. "I'm tired and it's loud."
Dean rolls his eyes, but he nods. "Okay, I'll go get Elena, meet you outside."
Sam nods gratefully. He gathers up his research, leaving a tip on the table even though most of their drinks were on the house.
Elena and Tyler are huddled together, so close their heads are nearly touching as they murmur back and forth, and it makes Dean feel sick.
"Uh, hey, Sam's ready to go," he says shortly.
Elena and Tyler pull back from each other, giving him identical wary looks. Dean's beginning to wonder if maybe he's had too much to drink because every move they make kinda makes him want to hurl. They exchange an unreadable look and then Elena is sliding off the bar stool and Tyler's standing up to swoop her into another maddeningly tight hug.
"Uh, I'll call you about that thing, okay?" Tyler says, pulling back.
Elena nods. "Yeah, thank you for that."
He waves his hand. "'Course. Us Founders' Brats gotta stick together."
They exchange a private smile.
Tyler turns to Dean. "Nice meeting you, and your brother."
Dean nods stiffly. "Likewise."
Elena is standing next to Dean and she hasn't leaned her cheek against his shoulder or any of the other a hundred absentminded acts of affection that he craves. He can't tell if it's because of Tyler's presence or if it's another newly instated boundary she's decided they can't cross. Either way it grates on him.
She makes all the rules.
They're just outside the entrance, and Dean's trying to think of a way to ask Elena about Tyler when she interrupts his thoughts.
"Where's Sam?"
Dean looks at her. "What do you mean? He's at the car already."
She shakes her head. "No, he's not. And his notebook is sitting on the car."
Dean follows her line of sight, sure enough, the parking lot is empty, Sam's notebook precariously perched on the trunk.
"Sam?" Dean calls.
Elena echoes him. "Sam?"
Trying not to alert her to his purpose, Dean picks up his pace, making sure he gets to the car first. He picks up Sam's notebook, trying to play it off.
Elena opens the back door, peering into the car like she expects Sam to be inside, taking a nap. The car is empty.
Dean glances around the empty parking lot.
A group of bikers amble out of the bar.
"Hey, you guys been outside, around here in the last hour or so?" Dean asks, his tone bordering on desperate.
They shake their heads.
"Sam? Sammy!" Dean calls.
Searching through the parking lot, he catches a glimpse of a few traffic cameras.
He walks onto the empty road, looking both ways. "Sam?"
Elena crosses the street to stand next to him.
She worries her lip between her teeth. "I called Tyler, he said he didn't hear anything."
Dean nods tensely. "How could he? He was still in the bar, that place was loud as hell." It bothers him that Elena's first thought was to call Tyler.
She nods. "Right, of course." Silently, she considers her options. "He, uh, offered to help," she says tentatively.
Dean shoots her a disbelieving look.
"Dean, I know…it's just, Tyler could really help us with this." She can see he's not listening. "He's really good at finding people."
"So are we," he snaps. With that he stalks back to the car.
Elena sighs, following after him.
The next morning Dean heads into the sheriff's office, leaving Elena in the car. He can tell she's far past being patient about getting left out of jobs, but he doesn't have the energy to spar with her over it while he worries about Sam at the same time.
"So, what can we do for you, Officer Washington?" Deputy Kathleen Hudak has dark hair and piercing eyes that miss nothing.
"I'm working a missing persons." Dean's tone is tense.
The officer frowns, shaking her head subtly. "I didn't know the Jenkins case was being covered by the state police."
"Oh, no. No, there's someone else. Actually, it's my cousin. We were havin' a few last night at this bar down by the highway. And I haven't seen him since."
"Does your cousin have a drinking problem?" she asks.
"Sam?" Dean scoffs. "Two beers and he's doin' karaoke. No, he wasn't drunk. He was taken."
Kathleen nods in understanding. "All right." She moves away from the counter towards her desk. "What's his name?"
Dean rounds the counter and takes a seat beside her desk.
"Winchester. Sam Winchester."
She raises an eyebrow. "Like the rifle?" she asks, sitting down.
He nods. "Like the rifle."
Kathleen types his name into her computer, waiting for it to search the database. "Samuel Winchester." Out of curiosity, she skims at some of the related links. "Older brother's a mess of trouble, so is his dad."
Dean shifts uncomfortably. "Yeah, Dean. Kind of the black sheep of the family." He can't resist adding, "Handsome, though."
Kathleen gives him a speculative look. "Uh-huh." She glances through the records. "Well, he's not showing up in any current field reports."
"Oh, I already have a lead," Dean says matter of factly.
She raises her head in interest, so he continues. "I saw a surveillance camera by the highway."
She nods in recognition. "Uh-huh. The county traffic cam?"
"Right. Yeah. I'm thinking the camera picked up whatever took him." He shrugs. "Or, whoever," he corrects himself hastily.
Kathleen considers him. "Well, I have access to the traffic cam footage down at the county works department, but-" She gets up. "Well, in the meantime, let's do this the right way." She pulls out a form from the filing cabinet behind her desk. "Why don't you fill out a missing persons report" Grabbing a pen and a clipboard, she hands it to him. "And sit tight over here?"
Dean looks at the form in his hands. "Officer, look, uh, he's family," he says bluntly, looking up at her. "I kind of—I kind of look out for the kid. You gotta let me go with you."
She gives him a sympathetic smile but shakes her head firmly. "I'm sorry, I can't do that."
Dean looks down at the form again. "Well, tell me something." He looks to her again, speaking plainly. "Your county has its fair share of missing persons. Any of 'em come back?"
She grimaces and looks down, all but answering his question.
Dean speaks firmly. "Sam's my responsibility, and he's comin' back. I'm bringin' him back."
She gives him a searching look, sizing up his character.
Sam wakes up in a cage. That's about as good as it gets. He doesn't have his jacket or his phone or any idea where he is.
A quick examination of his surroundings reveals another cage beside to his with an unconscious man inside it.
Sam's cage being entirely made from metal and rebar is good in that it can hold his weight while he tries to kick open the side, and bad in that his kicking does very little good against the material. He's still hanging from the top when Jenkins wakes up.
He's been still for hours, so Sam is surprised to see him awake.
Sam drops down, turning to look at him. "You're alive?" he says in disbelief. "Hey, are you okay?"
Jenkins' reply is surly. "Does it look like I'm doin' okay?"
"Where are we?" Sam asks.
"I don't know." He shakes his head. "The country, I think. Smells like the country."
"You're Alvin Jenkins, aren't you?" Sam asks.
Jenkins nods. "Yeah."
Sam huffs out a disbelieving laugh. "Wow, I was lookin' for ya."
"Oh, yeah?" Jenkins asks sarcastically.
"Yeah."
"Well, no offense, but this is a piss-poor rescue." Jenkins sounds like his offense is very much intended.
Sam tries his best to reassure him. "Well, my brother's out there right now, too. He's lookin' for us, and he's not alone. So-"
Jenkins interrupts him. "So? he's not gonna find us. We're in the middle of nowhere. Waiting for them to come back and do God-knows-what to us."
Sam leans against the steel cage, looking at him intently. "What are they? Have you seen them?"
Jenkins squints at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
Sam clarifies. "Whatever grabbed us, what'd they look like?"
The door to the building they're being kept in opens.
"See for yourself," Jenkins says shortly.
Two figures come in. One bangs a steel pipe against the cage, sending them scrambling back. Jenkins' cage opens. The figure approaches, a plate of food in hand.
"Leave me alone! Don't you touch me, leave me alone!" he yells.
The figure says nothing, just puts the food down and closes the cage. Jenkins leaps forward for his food.
Sam goes through the same routine, staring in fascinated horror as they leave.
"I'll be damned," Sam says, in shock as they leave the building. "They're just people."
Jenkins gives him a disbelieving look. "Yeah. What'd you expect?"
Sam ignores him. "How often do they feed you?" he asks instead.
"Once a day," he answers. He points over at the gray metal box attached to the wall. "And they use that thing over there to open the cage."
"And that's the only time you see 'em?" Sam asks.
Jenkins nods. "So far. But I'm waitin'."
"Waitin' for what?" Sam asks, moving to get a closer look at the control panel.
"Ned Beatty time, man," he says hoarsely.
Sam grimaces at the Deliverance reference. "I think that's the least of your worries right now."
"Oh, yeah?" Jenkins sounds skeptical.
"Yeah," Sam replies distractedly, he's back to looking at his cage for some kind of weakness, some way out.
"What do you think they want, then?" Jenkins asks.
"Depends on who they are." Sam is more focused on escape.
There's a cable hanging from the ceiling. Sam reaches up to grab it, pulling on it in vain.
"They're a bunch of psycho hillbilly rednecks if you ask me. Lookin' for love in all the wrong places."
Any news?
Elena purses her lips. She sent that text at least an hour ago, and still not reply from Dean. Frustrated, she unceremoniously drops her phone back into her bag, turning back to her iced coffee.
Across the table, Tyler raises an eyebrow. "Bad news?" he asks.
The café they're in is mostly empty. Everyone, including the cashier, is wearing headphones, which makes it an ideal place to talk about private matters.
She smiles tightly. "Dean just unceremoniously kicked me out of another case, that's all."
Tyler winces in sympathy. "You sure you can't just tell 'em no one's gonna remember you in Saginaw?"
She shakes her head, reaching for her drink.
"Dean would want to know why, and I can't exactly tell him my vampiric doppelganger compelled everyone to forget I was there." She takes a long drink.
Tyler nods. "That's rough."
She sighs deeply. "It's Sam. I can't believe he'd leave me out of it."
"Well, I'm still willing to help, he doesn't have to know," Tyler says, reminding her of his offer.
Elena gives him a grateful look but doesn't answer. As helpful as Tyler could be to them, she can't quite bring herself to go behind Dean's back like that.
Tyler switches back to the reason he invited her out in the first place.
"Anyway, you were right about who's been following you."
"The hybrid?" she asks, feeling both relieved and confused.
He nods. "Good news is Klaus didn't send him."
Elena frowns. That is good news, it gives her one less thing to worry about, but it still leaves one question unanswered.
"So why is he following me?"
Tyler arches an eyebrow at her.
It takes her a moment to understand.
She stares at him. "Seriously?" she asks incredulously.
He nods, an amused smirk working its way onto his face.
She leans forward. "I humiliated him in front of Klaus and all of the other hybrids."
He nods again, not at all surprised. "Yeah, you spilled vervaine all over him and told him he looked like prey. Caroline would be proud. He laughed when he told me."
Elena stares, mouth agape.
Tyler shrugs. "I dunno why you're so surprised, 'Lena. Guys have always liked it when you get a little feisty with 'em."
Elena shakes her head, rolling her eyes in disgust. "Ugh," is her only response.
Tyler laughs. "Don't worry about him, he's gonna stop following you, I promise."
She gives him a questioning look. "How do you know?"
"'Cause I told him I'd help him break the sire bond to Klaus. James jumped all over it." He steals a bite of Elena's coffee cake. "His name is James by the way."
Elena gives him an amused look.
"As in James Dean?" she asks, barely holding back laughter.
Tyler stares.
"Motherfucker."
Still laughing, Elena checks her phone. There's a response from Dean finally.
Riding with the deputy, don't wait up
Elena narrows her eyes dangerously.
"Oh shit," Tyler says, looking at her warily. "I recognize that look. What are you up to, Elena?"
Elena pushes her coffee cake towards him, offering him the rest. He takes it, still wary. They've known each other all their lives, Tyler knows when Elena Gilbert's about to fuck shit up.
"Nothing. I might take you up on your offer to help, that's all."
He nods immediately. "Yeah, of course." He pauses, hesitating. "I need to ask you for a favor, Elena."
"What is it, Ty?"
He sighs heavily. "Would you maybe go with me to meet with the pack?" he asks.
She frowns, concern creeping in.
He continues hastily. "I'm not asking for your blood or anything. I know you have to appear neutral for Klaus but you're kind of a big deal to werewolves. All I'm trying to do is convince them not to align with Klaus."
"How would meeting me help?" she asks, unsure.
"They need to see that you're a real person." He sucks in a breath, then goes for the gut punch. "And they need to know what Klaus did to you. What his family did to our town. So they understand that Klaus doesn't care about anyone but himself."
Elena stares at him. "I'm never gonna deny what he did, Tyler," she says firmly, then as gently as possible, she tells him the truth. "But I'm far past hating him. If you want someone to tell them that he's irredeemable, you're asking the wrong person."
Tyler stares at her in disbelief. "You can't seriously tell me you've forgiven him after everything he did?"
She shakes her head. "No, I haven't. And I probably never will. But he's not the boogeyman under my bed anymore either. He's not even my enemy."
Tyler leans forward, a look of intense hatred on his face.
"After what he did to Hayley? To my mo-" he cuts himself off abruptly. He looks away, overcome by grief.
Elena gives him a look of complete aching empathy. She reaches across the table to take his hand. He keeps it closed tight in a fist.
"Ty, I know. I'm not saying he's a saint. I'm not telling you can't hate him or spend the rest of your immortal existence planning his downfall." She takes a deep breath. "But it's different for me."
He finally looks at her again silently questioning.
"I was there, the night Hope was born," she says quietly. "I'll always think of her first." She sighs. "I never want her to lose anyone. Not like I have." She squeezes his closed fist, and it loosens. "Like we have." He turns his hand over offering her his palm. She presses her palm to his. "Not even him. I guess now I'll always want to believe that he can be better for her."
Tyler looks up to the ceiling taking a few deep breaths, processing what she said. Finally, he looks at her again.
"Why does he have to have such a cute kid?" he asks grumpily, but clearly making an effort to lighten the mood.
She laughs. "She's adorable. You know what she calls me?"
He shakes his head. "What?"
"Mylena. As in My Elena."
He snorts. "Yeah, okay, that sounds like his kid."
She laughs again. "He swears she came up with it on her own, but I'm not entirely convinced."
He nods in agreement. It's definitely the kind of thing Klaus would do, teach his daughter to be as charmingly possessive of Elena as possible, just like her father.
He sobers after a moment.
"I never knew you were there when she was born," he says finally.
She leans forward. "It's kind of a secret."
He hesitates. "Did you see Hayley?"
She pauses, then nods. "Yes," she whispers, looking haunted by the memory of Hope's birth and Hayley's murder. "I was there when she woke up, too."
Tyler stares at her, eyes wide in horror at the thought. He knows very little about exactly what happened that night, only that Hayley became a hybrid that night.
Elena clears her throat, letting go of his hand. "I'll talk to the pack if you still want me to. I'll tell them what happened in Mystic Falls."
He starts to relax.
"But I won't lie to them. I won't pretend that I didn't die for him willingly. And I won't try to convince them over to your side or anything. I'll just tell them what happened, that's all."
"That's enough." He nods. "Thank you, Elena."
"Finish your coffee cake, Tyler," she replies.
"Don't you mean your coffee cake?"
She shakes her head at him fondly. "Finish my coffee cake," she corrects herself. "And then we'll talk wolf packs and finding my missing friend."
Dean and Kathleen drive the route Sam's kidnappers would've taken.
Elena doesn't respond to his text, a sure sign that she's pissed. Dean feels only slightly guilty about blowing Elena off like that, the rest of him is focused on finding Sam.
And the smallest part of him can't get the image out of his head of Elena and Tyler in the bar, two dark heads of hair leaning in, nearly touching as they talked quietly, intimately.
Kathleen interrupts his musings. "Okay, the next traffic cam is fifty miles from here, and the pickup didn't pass that one, so…"
Dean continues the thought for her. "So, they must've pulled off somewhere." He looks at the map in his lap. "I didn't see any other roads here.
"Well, a lot of these backwoods properties have their own private roads," she explains.
He snorts. "Great." He closes his eyes briefly in frustration.
Kathleen's phone beeps. She glances at it, slowing down to a crawl as she reads something on her phone.
Kathleen eyes him. "So, Gregory," she starts.
"Yeah," Dean responds, slightly delayed.
Kathleen gets straight to the point. "I ran your badge number. It's routine when we're working a case with state police. For accounting purposes and what have you."
"Mmhmm." Dean nods like that isn't a problem at all.
Kathleen forges on. "And, uh, they just got back to me." She pulls the car over. She looks him in the eye. "It says here your badge was stolen. And there's a picture of you." She turns her phone towards him, showing an overweight black man.
Dean barely blinks. "I lost some weight. And I got that Michael Jackson skin disease."
She shakes her head in disbelief, unbuckling her seatbelt.
"Okay, would you step out of the car, please?"
"Look, look, look. If you wanna arrest me, that's fine. I'll cooperate, I swear. But first, please—let me find Sam."
Kathleen responds immediately. "I don't even know who you are. Or if this Sam person is missing."
Dean meets her gaze head-on. "Look into my eyes and tell me if I'm lying about this."
Kathleen doesn't miss a beat. "Identity theft? You're impersonating an officer."
Dean goes for broke, or in this case, honesty.
"Here's the thing. When we were young, I pretty much pulled him from a fire. And ever since then, I've felt responsible for him. Like it's my job to keep him safe. I'm just afraid if we don't find him fast—please. He's my family."
Dean can't help but feel deeply uncomfortable. He usually reserves this level of vulnerability for Elena Gilbert exclusively. He's not used to being this honest with strangers, let alone law enforcement.
Kathleen is resolute. "I'm sorry. You've given me no choice. I have to take you in." She does him the courtesy of telling him to his face. She glances away, her eye catching a photo on her sun visor. For a moment she just stares at the photo of herself and a man.
She glances back at Dean, then looks away shaking her head. She puts her seatbelt back on.
She amends her statement. "After we find Sam Winchester."
Jenkins finds himself watching Sam try to pull the cable from the ceiling out a lack of anything else to do.
"What's your name, again?" he asks.
"It's Sam." His tone is short, but Sam is more focused on the cable than Jenkins.
Jenkins tone is resigned. "Why don't you give it up, Sammy, there's no way out."
Sam manages to grit out a response. "Don't…call me…Sammy!" With one final heave, the cable comes free. A bit of plaster comes down with it. Sam coughs.
"What is it?" Jenkins asks.
Sam picks up the metal piece that came down with it. "It's a bracket."
"Oh, thank God, a bracket. Now we've got 'em, huh?" Jenkins lays on the sarcasm a little too thick.
Before Sam can respond, Jenkins' cage opens.
"Must've been a short. Maybe you knocked omething' loose."
Jenkins practically dives through the door.
Sam is far more cautious. "I think you should get back in there, Jenkins."
"What?" Jenkins' disbelief is evident.
Sam's unease continues to mount. "This isn't right."
"Don't you wanna get out of here?" Jenkins demands.
"Yeah," Sam says bluntly. "But that was too easy."
Jenkins isn't listening to him.
"Look, I'm gonna get out of here, and I'm gonna send help, okay? Don't worry," he says reassuringly.
"No!" Sam presses against the side of his cage desperately. "I'm serious. Jenkins, this might be a trap."
Jenkins doesn't acknowledge anything he said, he just keeps heading for the door.
"Bye, Sammy."
"Jenkins!" Sam yells in vain.
After what feels like an eternity, Sam hears Jenkins scream.
Elena is very careful to make sure she gets back to the motel room after Dean does. Dean, for his part, doesn't even pretend to be asleep when she gets in.
"Where were you?" he asks, clearly tense.
"Catching up with Tyler," she says vaguely. "Didn't you read my text?"
She can see his jaw work and she can't help the stab of satisfaction she feels.
"Can we not play games, right now, Elena?" he asks bluntly.
She stares at him like he's speaking a foreign language.
"I have no idea where Sam is, don't make me worry about you, too."
She softens, but still, she takes some satisfaction in knowing how much her answer will bother him.
"You don't have to worry about me when I'm with Tyler. He'll keep me safe."
The look on his face is enough, but there's something about holding back more that has always made Elena feel powerful. It's not her best quality, but it's her, for better or for worse.
The next day, getting coffee with Kathleen and heading back to her cruiser, Dean can't hold his curiosity at bay anymore.
"Hey, Officer? Look, I don't mean to press my luck," he starts.
She snorts. "Your luck is so pressed."
"Right." He shrugs it off with a nonchalance that greatly concerns her. "I was wondering—why are you helping me out, anyway? Why don't you just lock me up?"
Kathleen looks away for a moment. She decides to repay his honesty with some of her own. She looks at him again.
"My brother, Riley, disappeared three years ago. A lot like Sam. We searched for him, but…nothing. I know what it's like to feel responsible for someone, and for them…" She cuts herself off. "Come on. Let's keep at it."
Elena is never sure if werewolves hate her or love her. Hayley's wolves have an obvious bias given their friendship – and it came in handy when John decided to do things like drop her off in the middle of nowhere Louisiana just because she pointed out that punctuation is considered rude when texting. Of course, the only reason he felt comfortable doing that was because he knew Jackson would come get her, but still, it was reassuring, knowing they cared. – But other wolves are harder to pin down.
Some of them look like they'd happily deprive her of her jugular, while others look at her like she is The Answer. She can't really say which is more terrifying to her, but she suspects it's the latter.
Still, she sticks close to Tyler and answers their questions about Klaus honestly. They are curious about her too, what her blood creates and equally, who she is as a person, what she does. Most hunters don't bother to take the time to get to know any supernatural being. That Tyler and Elena grew up together, are still friends, are still fiercely protective of each other, is unusual.
When the wolves have satisfied their curiosity, Tyler asks them about the missing people in the area.
"Do you know what's taking people?"
Thomas, the alpha, answers with narrowed eyes.
"What else? They're people. Humans."
Elena sucks in a breath, stunned. It takes her a moment to find her voice.
"Why didn't you do anything?" she asks, ignoring her usual tact.
He glares at her. "They never do anything for us."
Elena glares right back. "So? Do you really need motivation to do the right thing?"
Something crosses his face. "What do you know about doing the right thing? You're a hunter. You murder and call it heroics."
"I don't," she says flatly. "I help who I can help, and I kill who I have to, that's what I do."
He gives her a look of grudging respect. "Well, that's a first."
She looks at him beseechingly.
"Please, can you tell me where they are? They took my friend. Help me save him. Help me do the right thing."
He gives her a scrutinizing look.
"Hell, I never liked those hillbilly creepers anyway."
Are you with Tyler?
Dean can't decide which is worse, having no leads on where to find Sam, or obsessing over Elena spending all of her time with a guy from her hometown. He understands on a certain level that he only has himself to blame on this one, he's the one who made the decision to keep her out of the case. It's not like the town has a lot to offer by way of entertainment.
"Who are you texting?" Kathleen asks, glancing over at him from a passenger seat.
"No one," he says hastily, putting his phone away, looking back out the window with extreme concentration.
Kathleen isn't easily deterred. "So it is a girl," she says with amusement.
Dean grits his teeth. "A very frustrating girl."
Kathleen gives him a look. "And what would this very frustrating girl call you if I asked her, hmm?"
Dean barely skips a beat. "Oh I'm sure it'd involve a lot of swear words."
Kathleen laughs. "I like her already."
Dean sighs. "Believe me, deputy, everybody does."
This time the look she gives him is full of sympathy. "Oh, one of those girls, then?"
"I'm still trying to figure out if there are any other girls like her." He knows his statement is cryptic, but it's on his mind.
Is Sam right? Does Elena have a doppelganger? It's a matter of great internal debate. For now, Dean would settle on having Sam back so he could have someone to properly theorize about Elena with.
Kathleen makes a sympathetic noise, assuming Dean is just too far gone for the perfect girl – not that she's wrong, just that Elena's always been too complicated for that. With her, it's never as simple as wanting her.
Dean notices a dirt road that's not on the map, pulling him back into reality.
"Wait, wait, wait—pull over here," He requests. "Pull over."
Kathleen complies and Dean gets out of the car. She follows him out.
"It's the first turn-off I've seen so far," he explains, looking back at her.
"You stay here, I'll check it out," she says.
He looks at her incredulously. "No way."
"Hey," she says, stopping and turning to look at him. He stops too, also turning to look at her. "You're a civilian – And a felon, I think. I'm not taking you with me," she says flatly.
Dean refuses to accept that scenario, shaking his head. "You're not goin' without me."
She's exasperated. She looks at the dirt road, then back at her cruiser.
Finally, she looks at him head on. "All right. You promise you won't get involved? You'll let me handle it?"
Dean lies immediately. "Yeah, I promise."
She gives him a skeptical look, holding out her hand. "Shake on it."
He takes her hand, and she immediately slaps a handcuff on his wrist.
He scoffs in disbelief. "Oh, come on."
Somehow Kathleen drags him back to the cruiser despite being half his size. She handcuffs him to the door handle. She takes his phone too, just to be sure.
Without a word, she starts heading down the road.
"This is ridiculous," he mutters to himself. Dean tries to talk his way out of it. "Kathleen, I really think you're gonna need my help," he calls after her.
She doesn't look back. "I'll manage. Thank you."
For good measure, she activates the car alarm.
He sighs. "I gotta start carrying paper clips."
Dean looks around, trying to figure out a way out of his predicament. He finally lands on the cruiser's antenna. He's reaching for it when a sound stills his movements. It's the familiar whining growl of an engine.
He swears, reaching for the antenna with more insistence. "Oh, son of a bitch." He refuses to think about how this all could've been a little easier if he had a little backup.
Dean barely breathes, hiding in the bushes as two men approach the vehicle.
One of them is talking.
"Well, I've never seen him so angry before."
There's a distinct beeping noise as he gets into the front seat of the car, telling Dean that he has Kathleen's keys, he's officially on his own.
The other man is answering.
"Well, we've never been followed by the police before."
That's gonna hurt – and then blunt pain the back of her head. Kathleen wakes up in a cage, the image of the pathetically creepy little girl grinning at her while she smudges Sam Winchester's picture between her grimy little fingers still fresh in her mind.
"You all right?" A voice asks from her left.
She looks over to find a man in an identical cage. She squints in recognition.
"Are you Sam Winchester?" she asks. "Aren't you?"
He looks surprised. "Yeah."
"Your, uh, your cousin's looking for you," she says, pressing her hand to her aching head. It occurs to her in stages that most of her uniform is gone, she's just left in her pants, undershirt and shoes. Someone took her hair down too. Worst of all, her gun is missing.
Sam lets out a gusting sigh of relief. "Thank God. Where is he?"
"Oh he, uh—I cuffed him to my car," she admits, suddenly recognizing that it was a mistake.
He frowns. "Was it just my cousin?" he asks carefully. "There wasn't a girl, too?"
She shakes her head. "Just him. Heard about the girl though."
Sam sighs. "Damn."
Just then the door opens. They both tense, watching with trepidation. To Sam's relief and Kathleen's astonishment, Dean walks in.
He beelines for Sam's cage. "Sam? Are you hurt?" he asks urgently.
Sam shakes his head. "No."
Dean slams a hand against the side of his cage with enthusiasm. "Damn, it's good to see you."
Sam nods in agreement. "Where's Elena?"
Dean shrugs, overly casual. "Probably with Tyler."
Sam rolls his eyes, opening his mouth to berate him when Kathleen cuts him off.
"How did you get out of the cuffs?" she asks.
Dean looks up, finally taking notice of her.
"Oh, I know a trick or two," Dean says vaguely.
He starts examining the locking mechanism on Sam's cage.
"Oh, these locks look like they're gonna be a bitch."
Sam sits up, sticking his arm out of the cage to point at the control panel. "Well, there's some kind of automatic control right there."
Dean follows his line of sight, nodding before looking back at Sam. He points and asks, "Have you seen 'em?"
"Yeah." He shakes his head. "Dude, they're just people."
"And they jumped you?" Dean asks, incredulous. "Must be gettin' a little rusty there, kiddo." He makes his way over to examine the control panel. "What do they want?"
Sam shrugs. "I don't know," he admits. "They let Jenkins go, but that was some sort of trap. It doesn't make any sense to me."
"Well, that's the point," Dean says grimly. "You know, with our…" he glances at Kathleen, choosing his words carefully, "with our usual playmates, there's rules, there's patterns. But with people, they're just crazy."
Kathleen stares between them like they're speaking another language.
"See anything else out there?" Sam asks.
Dean approaches Kathleen's cage, examining the locks.
"Uh, he has about a dozen junked cars hidden out back," Dean answers. "Plates from all over, so I'm thinkin' when they take someone, they take their car, too."
Kathleen speaks up.
"Did you see a black Mustang out there? About ten years old?"
Dean looks at her. "Yeah, actually, I did."
She falls silent, but it's enough for Dean. "Your brother's?" he asks.
She nods, seeming to collapse in on herself. There is nothing else to do now that all hope is gone.
"I'm sorry. Let's get you guys out of here, then we'll take care of those bastards." Dean turns to Sam abruptly. "This thing takes a key," he states simply. "Key?"
Sam shakes his head. "I don't know."
"All right, I better go find it," Dean says decisively, already heading for the door.
Sam calls after him. "Hey."
Dean stops, looking back.
"This would work better if Elena was here," Sam says simply. Dean having proper backup would really come in handy at a time like this.
Dean grimaces, unable to argue. "I know."
"Be careful."
Dean nods. "Yeah."
On their way to rescue Sam and possibly Dean considering he hasn't answered any of Elena's texts or calls, Tyler can't resist getting one last try in.
"You know, Elena, what you say matters to people," he begins, diving his attention between her and driving. "They listen to you; they can't help it. What you have to say is important." He glances over at her seriously.
"You should remember that when you bend over backwards to protect Klaus for his kid's sake."
Elena gives him a scathing look, so he hastens to explain himself.
"I'm not saying she doesn't deserve it. I'm saying he doesn't deserve it."
She looks at him.
"I know. The difference between us is that it doesn't matter to me that he doesn't deserve it, just that she does."
His face wrinkles in distaste.
"Ty, we've been over this, you've got every right to hate him, I'll never deny that. But I'm going to do what's best for her, no matter what."
He is silent and then, quietly. "Thanks for talking to them."
She nods. "Thanks for asking them about the disappearances."
He gives her a smile, looking more like the boy she grew up with than he has in years.
"Of course, Elena."
She pulls her hair up into a ponytail.
"Now let's go save my friends."
Entering the basement through the cellar door, Dean examines a collection of stuff that looks straight out of a horror movie set, hoping to find a key. He checks out a shelf full of glass jars full of unspeakable horrors. He taps one jar holding what looks like a human brain.
"Yikes."
In the back of his mind, he can't help but think of what Elena would say if she was here. Up onto her tiptoes, leaning over his shoulder to say right in his ear. "Serial killer trophies? Take a shot, Winchester."
He shakes her off as best he can.
He finds a bunch of polaroid pictures of the family with the bodies of their victims, like some disturbing trophy hunting souvenir. Eventually, he finds a photo that features Jenkins.
"I'll say it again—demons I get. People are crazy," he mutters to himself, swallowing down the acid surging in his throat.
Seeing that he won't find anything useful down there, he moves towards the stairs that lead up to the rest of the house.
The house itself is straight up classic haunted house, and Dean can't fully wrap his head around the fact that people live here. There's ragtime piano music jangling cheerfully – jarringly – from an honest to god phonograph.
Dean eases his way through the house, watching every corner, tense and ready for confrontation. From some unknown corner of the house Dean hears movement.
The further down the hallway he moves the louder it gets. He peeks through a door left ajar. There is an old man at a kitchen sink stained sickening red.
He sneaks past, eyes still on the man, and he doesn't see the mobile that he's about to run in to. It's the lightest of tinkling sounds, but still, he grabs desperately at the dangling objects to silence them. He finally gets a good look at them and recognizes with horror that they are made of human bone. In his left hand, he holds a jawbone, the right, a pubis bone.
He stares at them in horror. "What the-" He pulls his hands away quickly but quietly.
Glancing back towards the kitchen door, all seems undisturbed. He creeps further down the hallway. Around the corner he finds a heavy wooden stick with a large nail fixed atop it. He doesn't bother questioning it, just picks it up, hefting it in his hands with ease. He heads for the next room.
In the background, there is the sickening sound of a bone-saw squeaking through flesh and bone. Dean does his best to block it out.
Finally, he catches a glimpse of a dish full of keys on a side table. He puts down his weapon in order to sift through the heap. Momentarily he is distracted by a jar full of human teeth.
There is a creak behind him. He turns around to find a feral looking girl-child staring at him with hungry eyes and snarled hair. She flinches at his sudden movement.
He holds his hands out, trying to look harmless and reassuring.
"Shhh." He moves closer. "It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you," he says in undertone.
She gives him a snide look. "I know," she says, brandishing a tiny knife, sticking it through his jacket and into the wall, trapping him in place. "Daddy!" she yells.
"Jeez!" Dean grits out between clenched teeth, tugging at the knife fruitlessly.
She keeps screaming. "Daddy! Daddy!"
He manages to tug it free just in time for another man to materialize from one end of the hallway. Dean recognizes him as one of the men who moved Kathleen's car earlier. The other comes up behind Dean, grabbing around his middle. The first man comes charging at Dean. He lifts both of his legs off the ground to kick him away. The man holding him releases his waist to grab him by the jacket and slam him into the doorway, then into a bookshelf, causing the girl's knife to fall from his jacket.
Dean gets a few good hits in with both brothers. He points at one. "I'm gonna kick your ass first." He points to the other. "Then yours." He's so focused on them; he doesn't see their father come up behind him with a mallet.
Dean wakes up duct taped to a chair, like every bad cliché in every hostage and torture movie in cinema history. There's no Elena around to remind him, but he still wants a shot or six. He can feel the blood leaking from his head wound, trickling down the side of his face.
The family is staring him down like a pack of hungry wolves. One of the sons leans over to speak in his seated father's ear.
"Come on. Let us hunt him." He stares at Dean with hungry eyes.
His brother chimes in. "Yeah, this one's a fighter." He grins nastily at Dean. "Sure would be fun to hunt."
Their father starts to laugh a wheezing laugh, revealing yellowing teeth. Dean is more distracted by the revelation of what exactly they're doing to the people they kidnap.
"Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me," Deans says incredulously. "That's what this is about? You," he pauses carefully, considering his predicament, and picks a less colorful word for what they are than the one in his head, "you yahoos hunt people?"
The old man leans forward "You ever killed before?" he asks his question like he's asking if Dean's accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, like killing is sacred.
"Wh- " Dean looks at them, flabbergasted. Seeing how serious they are, he scoffs but answers as honestly as he's willing to. "Well, that depends on what you mean," he says evasively. No, he's never killed a person, but there's an awfully lot of blood on his hands.
Pa Psycho ignores him, more interested in monologuing than in Dean's cryptic response. "I've hunted all my life. Just like my father, his before him. I've hunted deer and bear—I even got a cougar once, huh boys?"
His sons nod in reverent affirmation.
He continues. "But the best hunt is human." He nods fervently. "Oh, there's nothin' like it. Holdin' their life in your hands. Seein' the fear in their eyes just before they go dark. Makes you feel powerful alive."
He looks at Dean like he's expecting something, fear, horror, anything that will feed his pleasure in playing predator.
Dean only has disgust for him. "You're a sick puppy."
Affronted, the man rises to his feet to defend his actions. "We give 'em a weapon. Give 'em a fightin' chance. It's kind of like our tradition passed down, father to son."
Even the little girl is staring at Dean like she'd go for the jugular, given the chance. He's really starting to regret that he didn't at least tell Elena where they were, it would've been nice to have some backup.
"Of course, only one or two a year." He sounds regretful. "Never enough to bring the law down, we never been that sloppy."
Dean snorts, looking up at him. "Yeah, well, don't sell yourself short. You're plenty sloppy."
Pa Psycho crouches down until he's eye level with Dean. "So, what, you with that pretty cop?"
Dean doesn't answer.
He tries again. "Are you a cop?"
Dean scoffs, grinning over at him. "If I tell you, you promise not to make me into an ashtray?"
The man looks over at one of his sons who steps forward and backhands Dean. He grits his teeth, barely making a sound, refusing to give them any satisfaction in seeing his pain.
"Only reason I don't let my boys take you right here and now is that there's somethin' I need to know."
He moves towards the ancient furnace out of Dean's sightline, the sharp sound of metal against metal putting Dean on edge.
Dean replies distractedly. "Yeah, how 'bout it's not nice to marry your sister?"
Pa Psycho ignores his quip. "Tell me—any of the cops gonna come lookin' for you?"
Dean sneers, internally cursing himself because no one is coming, and it's all his fault. "Oh, eat me." He pauses, considering his audience. "No, no, no, wait, wait, wait—you actually might."
One of the brothers' steps forward to grab Dean's head, holding him still while his father approaches with a glowing hot poker.
"You think this is funny?" Pa Psycho asks furiously. "You brought this down on my family." He gestures at himself with the poker. He leans down to meet Dean's eyes. "Alright, you wanna play games?" He considers him, malic gleaming in his eyes. "We'll play some games." He stands up, looking between his sons. "Looks like we're gonna have a hunt tonight after all, boys." He addresses Dean again. "And you get to pick the animal."
Dean's stomach drops.
"The boy or the cop?"
His insides turn. He responds hurriedly. "Okay, wait, wait—look, nobody's comin' for me, alright? It's just us." He's not lying, sad as it is. No one knows where they are. No backup is coming. It's definitely one of Dean's bigger mistakes, and it's starting to look like one he won't get the chance to regret for much longer.
Pa Psycho ignores him. "You don't choose, I will." Without further ado, he presses the burning hot poker to Dean's right shoulder.
Dean clenches his teeth against the pain. "Ah, you son of a bitch!"
He leans down to his level. "Next time, I'll take an eye." He holds the poker within an inch of Dean's eye to make his point.
Running out of options, Dean makes his choice. "All right, the guy, the guy! Take the guy!" At least he knows Sam stands a chance.
Pa Psycho stands up, his son letting Dean go in the same moment. He turns to his other son, taking a chain with a key on it from his neck, he holds it out to him.
"Lee, go do it," he says. When his son reaches out to take the key he holds on, forcing him to look him in the eye. "Don't let him out, though. Shoot him in the cage." He lets go of the key and Lee goes to the gun cabinet.
It takes a moment for his words to sink into Dean's pain-addled mind.
"What? I thought you said you were gonna hunt him. You were gonna give him a chance." Dean is horrified.
Pa Psycho grins, calling out to his other son. "Jared, go with him, I want you to shoot the bitch, too."
Jared nods and follows his brother over to the gun cabinet to grab a rifle, before they head outside.
"We gotta clean this mess up before any more cops come running out here," Pa Psycho says grimly.
Torn between rage and horror, Dean can only stare helplessly as Lee walks out into the night to murder his brother.
When the two younger men come marching in with rifles, Sam's stomach drops. Kathleen tenses, glancing desperately around for some kind of strategy.
"What are you doing?" Sam asks uneasily.
Sam's cell unlocks, then Kathleen's.
The men part ways, each approaching their cages separately.
Sam eyes his bracket with desperation.
"Hey!" Kathleen screams, trying to distract the man to give Sam an advantage.
He grabs the bracket, throwing it in the man's face, Kathleen kicks her door open into the face of her attacker.
In the background there is the quietest woosh of wind as the doors to their prison seem to open by themselves.
Struggling desperately against his bindings, Dean cannot contain his distress.
"You hurt my brother, I'll kill you, I swear. I'll kill you all. I will kill you all!" He yells the last part after Pa Psycho as he walks across the room.
"Lee!" he calls out after the sound of a single shot rings out. "Jared!"
There is no reply.
"Lee! Jared!" He calls for his sons fruitlessly.
He turns back to talk to his daughter. "Missy, I'm gonna check on your brothers, you watch him now."
She nods fiercely.
As he turns, he's met with a fist to the face.
"Elena?" Dean says dumbly.
Pa Psycho hits the ground like a ton of bricks. Elena ignores Dean in favor of the little girl, who is rushing at her, screeching like a banshee.
Without blinking, Elena bends her knees to grab the girl in a bear hug, hoisting her off her feet, hauling her out of the room, Missy fighting like a wildcat the whole way.
The girl is screeching her head off from the next room, making a ruckus for a few minutes before a door slams with finality and Elena is striding back into the room. She has a few red scratches down her arm but is otherwise unharmed, yet startingly grim-faced.
"How in the hell did you find this place?" Dean asks.
Elena ignores his question, setting about untying him.
"Elena?" he asks, suddenly wary.
"Don't," she enunciates as she rips off the duct tape, taking distinct satisfaction in his wince, "Say a single word," she finishes grimly.
He ignores her request. "Sam?"
She waves her hand. "He's fine," she says shortly.
After she finishes freeing his hands, she takes his face in her hands. She carefully examines the wounds on his face, her hands unbearably soft against his skin.
He reaches his hands up to wrap around her wrists.
"Is that the worst of it?" she asks, clearing her throat.
"Uh, yeah, pretty much," he replies hesitantly. His shoulder still feels like it's on fire, but he'll live.
She looks pristine, a skinned knuckle or two from her flawless hit to the old man's face, but her ponytail is as perky as ever and there isn't another sign of injury in sight. Her face is flawlessly blank, Dean can't even find the seam between her true self and her mask. He can't seem to read her mood and it's putting him on edge.
"I'll survive," he adds belatedly.
There's a flicker of some terrible emotion across her face and then she releases his face, straightens up, and wrenches her hands out of his grasp in one smooth move.
"Elena, thank-" he begins, but she cuts him off abruptly.
"God, you're such an asshole," she says harshly, then she hooks her boot under his chair and wrenches it up with perfect accuracy. He's flat on his back staring at the ceiling and another creepy bone mobile before he has time to get offended at her name calling.
She whirls around and stalks out of the room.
"Seriously, Elena?" he calls after her retreating form in exasperation and no small amount of confusion. His legs are still duct taped to the chair, so it's gonna take some maneuvering to free himself, even with his hands untied.
Outside, Dean finds Sam, mostly unhurt, Kathleen, bloodied, but standing, and to his exasperation, Tyler Lockwood.
He looks as pristine as Elena, and Dean distractedly wonders if it's some trait of their hometown, looking like they just stepped out of a photoshoot in the middle of a rescue mission.
Elena is standing beside Sam.
Kathleen appraises her. "You must be the girl I've heard so much about."
Elena gives her a level look. "I certainly hope what you heard was a continuous stream of regret about no one telling me where they were going in case they got ambushed by psychotic hillbillies."
Dean winces as Kathleen laughs.
Sam pipes up. "Don't worry, I told him," he says cheerfully.
She nods at him briskly. "Good."
"How did you find us?" Dean takes the risk to ask.
Elena gives him a dark look, then tosses her ponytail to point her chin towards Tyler.
"Lucky for your dumb ass, Ty's a great tracker."
Tyler shrugs modestly. "Always happy to help, 'Lena."
She smiles at him fondly before looking at Dean pointedly. He returns her look with a significant amount of annoyance but caves quickly.
"Thank you, Tyler." Apparently, he isn't allowed to thank Elena, just her friend.
Tyler shakes his head, looking at him with no small amount of pity – or amusement. "Don't mention it." He manages to resist the urge to laugh at Dean; Elena really could do a number to a guy.
Kathleen and Sam follow up with their own thanks that are significantly less grudging.
"What did you do with the little girl?" Kathleen asks Elena, remembering the feral child now that it's over.
Elena, looking somewhat abashed, admits to locking her in a closet.
Kathleen can't find it in herself to judge her for it, the memory of the girl's glee at Kathleen's injury at her father's hand is still too fresh.
Kathleen looks between her fellow captors and their fresh-faced rescuers.
"I don't know what you all are," she says this pointedly, looking at each one of them carefully, "but thank you for the rescue." She claps her hands together like she's ready to take charge.
"It might take me a minute to find my radio and my cruiser, but as soon as I do, I'll phone it in. I would take off before then if I were you."
Elena and Tyler exchange a significant glance.
"You got this, Ty?" she asks him.
He nods. "Yeah, don't worry about it, 'Lena."
"You make sure that everyone who needs to know what happened here knows, okay?" she tells him carefully.
He nods. "I will," he gestures around to the house and the cars." I've got everything I need to figure out who to tell."
She sighs. "Good."
The brothers and Kathleen are staring between them like they're speaking a foreign language.
"Take care of the girl, okay?" Elena says finally.
Tyler nods grimly.
They step forward, embracing briefly but easily.
He keeps ahold of her shoulders as they part. "You keep in touch this time, okay?"
Elena nods, raises her eyebrow meaningfully. "Good luck with your new friend."
Tyler snorts and returns her nod.
Elena steps away from him, gesturing Sam and Dean towards the driveway.
"What is going on here?" Kathleen asks with authority.
Elena shakes her head. "Nothing, Tyler's gonna help you out, okay?"
Tyler comes over to stand beside her.
Kathleen looks confused. "Are you in law enforcement?" she asks him as he leads her away.
Dean focuses on Elena. "You gonna tell me what just happened?"
She looks at him. "No," she replies simply before starting down the driveway. "Now come on, it's a long walk back to town and I'd like to get there before sunrise."
Sam falls into step with Dean, they follow her down the road.
Dean takes him by surprise by speaking first. "Don't ever do that again."
Sam glances over at him. "Do what?"
Dean doesn't look at him, just stares at Elena's swishing ponytail. "Go missin' like that."
Sam grins. "You were worried about me."
Dean glances over at him, irritated. "All I'm sayin' is, you vanish like that again, I'm not lookin' for you."
"Sure, you will," Sam says confidently.
"I'm not," Dean says flatly.
Sam just grins to himself.
"So, you got sidelined by a thirteen-year-old girl, huh?" he asks cheekily.
"Oh, shut up," Dean replies grumpily.
Sam replies quickly. "Just sayin', gettin' rusty there, kiddo."
"Shut up," Dean says with a laugh.
Sam points his chin towards Elena.
"Her friend's an interesting guy," he says casually.
"Yeah?" Dean asks distractedly.
"Definitely not human," Sam replies soberly.
Dean stops, looks at him with wide eyes.
"The way he moved…" Sam trails off, remembering the rescue. "He had those guys on the ground before I could even blink."
"They grew up together," Dean answers firmly. "I mean, that's what she said. That's how she's always talked about him, even back then. That she's known him all her life."
Sam considers this. "So he's new to what he is or he was born that way."
"But what is he?" Dean asks. "Werewolf? I mean, she said he's a good tracker, but the full moon's not for another week. What else could he be?"
Sam decides to go for broke. "I don't know. Let's ask."
Before Dean has time to respond, Sam calls out to Elena.
"Hey Elena, is Tyler a werewolf?"
Elena stops, turns back to face them slowly. She looks between each of them warily, and Sam realizes that she is afraid.
"We're not gonna hunt him or anything," Sam tacks on hastily. "I mean, he kinda saved my life" he gestures at Dean "Both of our lives. I just couldn't help but notice he was uh, a lot faster than any human I've ever seen, and stronger." By now he's rambling, but he can't seem to stop. "I know from Dad's journal there's a wolfpack in the area, but they mostly keep to themselves, so he didn't think they had anything to do with the disappearances, and uh, we were just wondering about Tyler," he finishes lamely.
Elena considers them, then takes a deep breath.
"I know," she says simply. "About the wolves in the area, they're the ones who helped Tyler and I find you both," she explains. "And kind of," she tacks on belatedly.
They stare at her.
"Tyler's kind of a werewolf?" Dean asks finally.
She nods weakly. "It's a long story," she says, looking just this side of nauseous. "But the most important part is that it's my fault. I mean, he's never said it, I don't think he blames me or anything, but the unavoidable fact is that Tyler wouldn't be what he is if it wasn't for me so…" she trails off, then smiles bitterly. "I guess I blame me."
Sam nods finally to make up for his lack of response. Elena turns around and resumes walking. Sam is so caught up in trying to remember exactly what Elena said about Tyler that he misses the look of realization on Dean's face – quickly followed by a deeply troubled look.
Sam has finally caught up to Elena in order to properly thank her for her rescuing him, while Dean has dropped behind to contemplate his revelation.
"How long do you think it's gonna take us to get back to town?" Sam asks.
"Oh, not long at all once we reach Tyler's rental," Elena responds absentmindedly. "He said we could borrow it, he'll pick it up from the motel in the morning," she adds with more focus.
He looks at her in surprise.
"You didn't mention any of this earlier?" he asks.
She shrugs. "I thought Dean could use a walk," she says dryly.
He laughs.
"I'm still tempted to let him walk the rest of the way back," she adds darkly.
Sam decides to go for honesty. "You know he's just jealous, right?"
Elena looks annoyed.
"That's stupid," she says flatly.
Sam rolls his eyes. "C'mon Elena, stop pretending like there's nothing going on between you and Dean-"
She cuts him off. "I didn't say that. It's stupid for Dean to be jealous of Tyler. Ty and I have only ever been friends. No pining, no romantic feelings on either side." She looks at him, completely honest for once. "We're friends."
Sam nods. "Oh." He's more absorbed in the fact that this is the first time Elena hasn't in any way tried to say there isn't anything between her and his brother.
They walk in silence for a few minutes before Sam remembers something he wants to ask her.
"What's gonna happen to that little girl?" he asks.
Elena sighs. "Tyler will help her forget how she was raised. She'll be put into the system. Hopefully someday she'll have a normal life."
"He can do that?" he asks. "Make her forget?"
Elena nods. "Yeah. He can't change feelings though. So if she's really like that underneath, just as cruel and twisted as her dad and her brothers, she won't make it very far."
"What will happen then?" he asks.
"Someone will be watching, and they'll deal with it." She shrugs. "For now, she gets her best chance at having a normal life."
Sam nods.
Elena stops so Sam does too.
Dean, having fallen a significant distance behind them in his trouble musings, is still walking.
She pulls a set of car keys from her pocket, then points ahead. "The car's just around the bend, why don't you go ahead and come back for us?" She holds out the keys to him.
He takes them, hyper-aware that whatever Elena has to say to Dean now, she has no intention of saying it front of Sam. He glances back at Dean who seems to be aware that something is coming.
"Yeah, okay," Sam says. Something like nervous energy thrums through him, and he sets off at a jog without really meaning to.
Elena waits until he's out of earshot before she turns back to Dean. It only takes him a few steps to be close enough for conversation, and in only a moment, he is standing in front of her, waiting.
She considers him for a long moment before speaking.
"If you can't trust me, I'll go," she says finally, shocking him to his core.
He straightens, looking at her incredulously. He expected her to yell, not issue an ultimatum.
Ignoring his look, she continues. "But that's it, Dean, if I go, there's no looking back."
"Where would you go?" he asks numbly, not fully processing her declaration. "New Orleans?" he asks, feeling nauseous even as it occurs to him.
She shakes her head definitively. "No. The point is to run, Dean." She looks at him, finally scrubbed raw of her mask, and all he sees is exhaustion and terror and something that looks too much like paranoia for his comfort. "I can do it on my own if I have to, but I've never wanted to." For once, she is honest to a fault. "I would rather be with you."
It should make him happy, instead it fills him with the kind of dread that can't be explained. Maybe he sees it in her face, what she's going to say next.
"I've seen what running alone can do to someone. I know a girl who ran for five hundred years, and she was alone. What that did to her…" she trails off, caught up in her own terror. "It scares me."
She doesn't bother with any of her usual tricks, no looking over his shoulder, refusing to meet his gaze. She looks at him head on, steadily telling him the horror story that haunts her sense of self.
"It scares me how close we are to being each other, because I don't ever want to be like her," she says this in one tumbling breath, lacking all her usual control. It pours out of her like she's been thinking of telling him this every day since she climbed into the front seat of his car at eighteen, prepared to run for her life.
"I know she's like that because she has to be, and at the end of the day I'll be anything I have to be, too."
She looks so tired, so resigned, that it hits him like a physical blow to the chest.
"But we don't have anything if you don't trust me," she says with finality. "I understand that you want to know things I can't tell you. If you can't trust me because of it, I'll go, if that's what you want."
She stops suddenly, sucking in a breath, she stares at him while she waits for his reply.
There are a lot of things he wants to say, but there seems to be only one thing he can say.
"Don't go."
He doesn't say anything else, but that seems to be enough for her.
"Okay."
The next morning Sam and Dean pack their things while Elena says her goodbyes to Tyler in the parking lot.
"So you gotta any ideas what you're going to do about Alaric?" Tyler asks.
Elena shakes her head. "I don't know. I'm not even sure if he is following me – yet. It's only a matter of time, though."
Tyler nods, looking grim.
"I need to think of a new way to confuse him now that he finally figured out girl number 3 is Katherine, not me."
Tyler only has the barest understanding of how exactly Elena has managed to keep Alaric off her trail for so long, but it's only natural that Katherine is involved.
"He probably knows Katherine is back in the states by now, which is helpful in a way, but I just don't know how much he knows about my pattern, where I've been."
Tyler can practically see the cogs turning in her mind.
"I'm sure you'll figure something out," he says encouragingly.
She focuses back on him, flashing him a grateful smile.
"Thanks for being my backup," she says. "And for figuring out who my stalker is and lending us the car and clearly being a much better friend to me than I am to you."
She can't help but think of the rest of their friends from Mystic Falls and how she hurt and abandoned them in the name of protecting them. Maybe she's just not good at being a friend.
Tyler shakes his head, seeing right through her. "Nah, don't freak out about it, Elena. You always get the raw deal; we all know it. No one is mad at you, not anymore. You're taking all the heat. From both Alaric and Klaus." He makes a point to meet her eyes. "We get it."
She swallows, nodding.
Relieved that she isn't going to keep beating herself up, he continues.
"Besides, talking to the pack was more than enough payment. They really heard what you had to say. They trust me now."
She nods. "That's good."
He looks her over, says what he's been thinking since he first saw her.
"I've been thinking about him a lot lately." He doesn't need to say his name, they both know who he means.
Elena sucks in a ragged breath. She simply nods, unable to talk about it, even after all the time passed. Some wounds just don't heal.
Tyler nods in understanding.
"I miss him," he says simply.
"Me too," she responds.
They hug one last time and then he gets in his car and drives away.
In the motel room Sam is frantically writing down what Elena said about Tyler while Dean shoves the last of his things into a duffle bag.
Dean knows he should tell Sam what Elena said about the other girl – presumably the doppelganger – who ran for 500 years and how scared Elena is of becoming like her, but he can't bring himself to. There is something too raw, too fresh about Elena's confession for Dean to put it into words for Sam.
Finally, he takes a breath, and decides to tell Sam what he remembered instead.
"'So far it's just been blood sacrifice and creating a new breed of monsters'," he quotes grimly.
Sam looks over at him, absorbing his words slowly.
Dean elaborates, still looking grim. "That phone call back when she was still in Mystic Falls, that's what she said. Blood sacrifice and creating new monsters. I only remembered when she said that it was her fault that Tyler is whatever he is."
Sam considers this with mounting horror. "You mean it could literally be her fault that he is what he is? She made him into a monster? How does that even work?"
Dean shakes his head. "I have no idea."
tbc.
AN: Chapter title from Ya'll Motherfuckers Need Jesus by Goddamn Gallows. So I discovered this delightful song on a fanmix for Sookie Stackhouse, but one for the book character, not the show. I've seen a little bit of True Blood, but I've read all of the Southern Vampire Mysteries books. This song never fails to make me laugh and hearing it for the first time on a mix for Sookie honestly just made my life better. And you know, whenever I think about the Benders, I just think "ya'll motherfuckers need Jesus" so, perfect song for these crazy ass hillbillies!
Notes/References:
I love Olalla, I once wrote a 12 page research paper on it in one night and then slept under a desk in my college's library before class. I got an amazing grade on it, too. But yeah, anyway, Olalla has so many Petrova vibes and Elena is a Victorian Gothic lit bitch so, she'd vibe with it.
Poor Dean, trying to convince himself it's Elena's hair that everyone's obsessed with. For real though, I like to imagine they try the free drink trick with many handicaps. No flirting with the bartender, no low-cut shirts, no batting her eyelashes - purely for scientific research, of course.
TYLER, MY BABY BOY! Yeah, it's been so long since I decided that Tyler would show up in this chapter/episode that I frankly can't remember when I did decide. Probably pretty close to the beginning. He was definitely the first TVD character appearance I planned. He's also the first to interact with Sam or Dean in the current timeline!
Dean doesn't want Elena to get to Sam's notebook first because he doesn't want her to see Sam's notes about her. It hasn't fully set in that Sam is actually missing, so right now he's just worrying about preventing Elena from finding out that they're building theories about her.
…I do not want to explain the plot of Deliverance to anyone ever, so feel free to google it, I just figured I would elaborate a bit so the Ned Beatty comment would make sense to you lucky souls who have never seen that movie.
Yeah so I was trying to think of something to call Dean's hybrid lookalike and the first name that popped into my head was James…then two seconds later I realized why. Sometimes real life is the best inspiration lmao. Don't worry tho, not James/Hybrid!Dean will have an actual name, he's not done yet.
I think…I just fully blocked out the scene of Dean finding the photos because holy shit that's probably the creepiest scene in this entire damn show. WHY WAS I ALLOWED TO WATCH THIS AS A 10 YEAR OLD. Anyway I had to take a break from writing after that scene to watch Gilmore Girls and cleanse my soul.
So funny story, in the middle of writing this chapter, buzzfeed posted a listicle of the scariest episodes of shows and both Skin and Wendigo from SPN made the list. I completely disagree, to me The Benders is in fact the scariest episode - the entire time Dean is walking through the house you can hear Pa Bender using the bone saw on Jenkins and it's so off-putting - but it did get me thinking about how SPN truly caters to every kind of phobia. So which episode do ya'll consider the scariest?
Dean and Sam are pretty good hunters to say the least, it would be unrealistic if they couldn't start putting things together when Elena has let so much slip - which is what happens when you really don't want to keep a secret and your (almost) boyfriend's dad asks you not to tell him why you're on the run for your life.
As long as nothing catastrophic happens at work this week, I should be updating next Sunday, which will put us at Shadow. Who's excited to see Meg again? No one? Same. (I'm sorry, there are so many great villains in this show, but season 1 Meg just does not do it for me.)
Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Please leave a review!
xoxo
-Pixie